Strangers in a Strange Land
by NateLikeFreight
Summary: Leaving Tazmily Village when it becomes not so cozy and familiar, Flint and his two sons must adapt to life in a new country: Eagleland. An amputee Claus and a painfully shy Lucas may have it tough making their way in a new place, but new friends, and maybe some more than friends, change both boys lives for the better. Rated T for language and mature-ish themes. Thanks for reading!
1. Prologue

"Flint don't do it! That won't solve anything! You'll only make its child go through what Claus and Lucas had to!"

The seething man looked down at the knife in his hand, then back at the Drago, or what was left of it. He clenched his fist tighter around the handle of the knife, wanting nothing more than to finish off the damned creature. But he knew Alec was right, and slowly lowered the hand down to his side, looking down at the knife once more before slackening his grip on it, letting it fall to the ground. The usually stoic Flint fell to a knee, all the emotions that had fueling his rage moments ago now flooding him with sadness. This isn't how Hinawa would have wanted it. He'd mutilated this scared confused creature, more machine than Drago at this point. He hung his head low as a baby Drago crept from behind a rock formation, trying in vain to tend to its mother's wounds. Alec knelt beside Flint, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find Claus, don't worry" Alec tried to reassure, not entirely believing the words he said. He and Flint sat solemnly like this, watching the young Drago mourn over its parent, nestling hopefully up to it, but to no avail.

* * *

A mustachioed man limped through the rocky terrain of the Drago Plateau, wiping his brow. He didn't see Flint and Alec anywhere, and considered turning back. He sat down on a large rock for a moment to ponder his options. If he hadn't found the pair of men by now, he doubted he would period, and there was no point in continuing a fruitless search. However, he winced a bit imagining the chastising he would receive from his old man if he were to come back so soon. Maybe he should kick around the forest for a bit, stall for time? Duster sighed, picking himself back up to resume looking for Alec and Flint. Flint had always been there for him and his father, and the man felt he owed him his help at the very least. No sooner had he resumed walking though when a colossal roar cut through the air, seemingly from the top of the plateau. Duster chided himself silently for not thinking to walk up the mountain path rather, than take the low road. Whatever made that noise, he hoped Flint and Alec weren't anywhere near it. Averting his gaze from the top of the plateau from where the sound had come he noticed a pair of legs sticking out from behind a rock formation, bloodied badly and missing a shoe. Duster ran over to them quickly, unfettered by his ankle. His eyes widened at the sight: Claus, very badly bleeding in multiple places, and his right arm bent in an a very awkward way. _Shit_ Duster swore to himself, desperately trying to figure out how best to handle the situation. The boy was clearly badly injured and grabbing him and running back to Tazmily could just exacerbate that. However, he almost certainly wouldn't make it in the time it would take Duster to get to Tazmily and return with medical attention. An injured Claus was better than a dead one though, and taking him back was the necessary course of action.

" _Of all the people to find him, it's the cripple_ " Duster thought somewhat wistfully to himself, pulling his shirt up over his head to use as a tourniquet of sorts, to hopefully preserve the boy as long as possible. Duster swaddled the child with his shirt, being as delicate with his arm as possible, without any sort of reaction from the boy. He scooped the boy up tenderly, glancing once more back up at the cliffside, where the roar of Drago's had been providing the soundtrack to the cruel sight Duster had come across.

"Flint, if you're up there, be careful friend"he said quietly to himself, turning away to begin sprinting back to the Village, trying not to jostle the injured boy too badly.

* * *

Alec walked with Flint back to Tazmily, partly because he knew Lucas would need all the support he could get in this time of vulnerability, and partially because he had no idea how Flint would respond without Alec there to check him. The last thing Lucas needed was to lose his father to a jail cell so soon after losing both his mother and his twin. The two walked dejectedly, neither exchanging any words. However, the silence was broken with a shout from up ahead of them, near the outskirts of the village.

"Flint!" Thomas yelled, waving his arms frantically. Flint, previously looking down at his boots, looked up, startled by the panic in Thomas's voice. "It's Claus! We found him!" Flint's eyes widened, and the normally reserved and stoic man began sprinting towards the village, losing his hat as he ran. Alec couldn't possibly keep up with the far younger man and picked up Flint's hat from the ground before running more slowly to the village. Flint burst into the door of Wess's residence, where he had been directed to by Thomas. Claus was laid out on the bed on the main floor, bandaged extensively, and his twin brother crying next to him beside the bed. Flint quickly joined Lucas beside him, looking over his son.

"Flint, glad you're here" Duster said, pacing his hand on the older man's shoulder. "I found Claus pretty badly beaten up in the Plateau and got him back here as quick as I could". Flint didn't respond for a few seconds, still looking at the son he thought he'd lost. Finally, what Duster said registered, and he looked up at him.

"Is he.."

"Yes, he's going to be okay" Wess interjected. "It's a damn good thing Duster got him here when he did, much longer and he would have bled out easily, he's cut up real bad"

Flint extended his hand to Duster for a handshake, but decided against it, instead pulling him in for a hug, much to Duster's surprise.

"Duster… thank you" was all he could muster, choked up. Duster nodded in reply, motioning to Claus's arm.

"I think it's fair to say his arm is pretty much useless right now, nearly shattered from the look of it. God knows if he'll ever get back any function, but we can hope."

Flint nodded, turning away from Wess and Duster to watch Claus sleep, while his brother prayed quietly next to him.

* * *

Duster accompanied Flint home that night, carrying a sleeping Lucas while Flint carried his other son gingerly. Flint looked over at the taller man, tears welling up in his eyes once more.

"I know I've said it already Duster, but I truly can't thank you enough for what you've done for me today". Duster motioned for Flint to stop with his free hand, but the gesture was ignored. "No, I'm serious son. If there's ever anything I can do for you, anything at all, please tell me you'll let me know".

"It was nothing Flint," Duster replied in a hushed voice, as to not wake the sleeping boys. "But I'll be sure to let you know if anything does come up".

Arriving at the house, Duster nudged the door open with his bad foot, letting Flint go in first before following him over to the bed the boys usually shared. Flint laid Claus in the bed, carefully as to not cause him any pain, and pulled a light blanket over him. Duster followed suit, covering up Lucas in Flint's bed before making his leave. Flint pulled the rocking chair from by the fireplace over to the two beds, sure he wasn't going to sleep a lick that night. He watched both his boys breathing gently, thanking God that through all the hardship they'd endured over the last several days, he still had both his precious sons, the most valuable gifts his late wife had ever given him. As the sun rose so too did his little boys; first Lucas, then a bewildered and pained Claus much later. They would get through this. They had to.

 **Thanks for reading. The following chapter will skip to where the majority of the story takes place, as well as be significantly meatier than this chapter was. I felt I needed this chapter to preface it with this to explain why Claus was injured in this particular story. Ciao!**


	2. Chapter 1

**9 years later...**

Lucas lie awake, staring up at the popcorn ceiling of the small room he and Claus shared. The room was largely undecorated, save for a dried sunflower pinned to the wall on Lucas's side of the room. It had been only three days, though the sparse luggage the boys had brought with them on their voyage from the Nowhere Islands would indicate that the room would not become much less barren anytime soon. Lucas had been given months to prepare for their departure, but even that wasn't enough time to say goodbye to fifteen years of memories. Even as Yokuba and his cronies slowly but surely transformed Tazmily from the peaceful hamlet it had been to a colder, modern civilization, Lucas's heart was still with his homeland. The boat ride to Eagleland had been nearly three days, and far more crowded than Lucas anticipated. He was glad he had packed lightly. With his father selling most of what they had to afford this humble house on the outskirts of Onett, they hadn't had much to bring anyway, and all the belongings they had brought fit neatly in personal knapsacks. A few changes of clothes, clean linens, and a handful of books were what the two boys had brought, and Flint hadn't brought much more than them. Duster, finally cashing the favour Flint had promised him so many years ago accompanied them, and outside of an acoustic bass slung across his back he too brought nothing but clothes and bedding. Even after arriving in Eagleland following the boat ride it had been a days trip across the country to Onett, to the little home Flint had purchased for the three (now four). Lucas sighed, turning onto his side and facing Claus, dead asleep. Turning back onto his back, he flipped over to his other side, reaching underneath the wooden bed frame to grab a flashlight and a book he had stowed there. The flashlight was on its last leg, providing enough light to read, but barely. The book Lucas had grabbed, "Overcoming Shyness" was pretty thick, this fact exacerbated by near a dozen letters Lucas had stashed inside, away from his brothers' prying eyes. After his father had broken the news to them that they would be leaving for Onett in a few months' time, Lucas wasted no time finding himself a pen pal there, not wanting to move to such a drastically new place without knowing at least one person. Lucas and the boy, Ninten, had written each other a few times a month, never about much serious, very basic ice breaking questions and questions about what it was like living in Onett and Tazmily, respectively. Ninten struck Lucas as a bit scatterbrained from his letters, as he would often go off on tangents, usually very tenuously related to what he had initially been discussing. He seemed nice enough though, and Lucas was happy to at least know one person. He had little time to meet up with the boy yet, but he planned to at least once before school picked up the next week. Just as Lucas started to read the topmost letter the flashlight sputtered, giving a few pitiful blinks of light before going out completely. " _Dammit"_ Lucas swore, setting the flashlight and book back down quietly as not to disturb his sleeping twin. Realizing he would not be able to sleep, Lucas rolled back to the left side of his bed away from the wall, quietly slipping his blanket off of himself and slipping his bare feet into plain orange slippers sitting by his bed. He stood up slowly, wincing at the loud creak his wooden bed gave, but Claus simply inhaled in his sleep and moved his arm slightly. This movement shifted the blanket off of Claus a bit, exposing what was left of his right arm. Cut off just slightly above what would be his right elbow, Claus's stump arm was just one of the consequences he had incurred for chasing after that Drago nine years ago. Lucas covered it back up gently as he left, not wanting his brother to get cold and wake up, seeing him not there. He quietly ascended the narrow basement staircase and emerged into the main room of the top floor, where Duster snored loudly on the couch, his gangly arms hanging limply off one end. As quietly as possible Lucas fetched a sweatshirt off the floor by the door, and walked outside, feeling the crisp evening air and light rain drops on his skin. It was abnormally cold for an August night, but the boy didn't mind. Though Lucas had obviously grown quite a lot in nine years, he was still a very slight boy, standing just over 5'7, and a habitual slouch didn't help matters much. Lucas slipped on the sweatshirt, a very plain white wool one from Tazmily and began walking up the road in front of their house, leading up the small mountain that sat north of Onett. Lucas had walked this walk quite a few times in the few days they had been here, finding that it relaxed him a lot. The view from the top reminded him a lot of Grandpa Alec's mountain cabin back on the Islands, and any extended period of time where he didn't feel obligated to socialize was a welcome period of time for the blonde.

He kicked gravel as he walked, the raindrops starting to break down the little bit of gel still left in his hair. The walk wasn't long, ten minutes at most, and Lucas was quickly at the summit, a beautiful view of the Onett skyline on one side of him and the gorgeous valley below on the other. For a while Lucas just stood, admiring the scenery, his mind on nothing in particular. However, the longer he stood the more his mind started to wander back to Tazmily, back to all the faces he missed. His and Claus' good friend Fuel in particular had been hard to say goodbye to, and his tearful farewell was etched into Lucas' brain. Most of the adults hadn't been very hard to say goodbye to, they had largely become much less personable than they had once been, but Fuel hadn't changed a bit since they were kids, still the same rambunctious ladies man Claus was, only now having ladies to actually mack on. Lucas chuckled internally a bit at the thought. Him and Claus had always been about the girls, and the girls had largely always been about them. Though Claus was the more popular of the two, Lucas had had a couple girlfriends as well, though nothing serious by any means. Though Claus was quick to set his brother up with girls, Lucas never really hit it off with any of them. They were nice, sure, and enjoyable to be around, but Lucas never really thought of them as much more than close friends. This mindset was precisely what had ended both relationships rather quickly, a fact Lucas lost no sleep over.

 _Speaking of sleep…_ Lucas thought, yawning a bit. He could see their small house from up on the mountain, so quiet and peaceful in the soft moonlight. Lucas took another few seconds to soak in the view before standing up, brushing gravel off of his backside. No sooner had he started walking back to the trail though when he swore he heard faint voices, coming from somewhere near. He couldn't make out what they were saying, nor where they had come from. He continued walking, chalking it up to nerves until her heard it again. He still couldn't tell where the voice was coming from, but he could make out their conversation now.

"…told you we'd just get him in trouble"

"Oh, lighten up Jeff. It was all in good fun"

"All in good fun doesn't usually entail…"

Lucas was a bit panicked now, looking for where the voices could possibly be coming from. They were getting louder towards him, and he started instinctively backing up out of fear. However, just as he started backing up he heard a loud crackling noise resembling dead air on a television set, followed shortly by a loud _POP,_ and no sooner had he heard the noise before someone smacked into him, sending him sprawling down the hill a ways. Lucas rolled comically, too bewildered to make a noise before smacking his head on a decent sized rock on the side of the path.

"Holy shit Jeff what did you…" was all Lucas heard before conking out.

 **Thanks again for reading. Chapters will start being longer once the story gets into the full swing of things. Additionally, I use the name Yokuba rather than Fassad in the first paragraph, simply because I prefer the name Yokuba. Though to clear up any potential confusion, the two are one in the same. Ciao!**


	3. Chapter 2

Lucas wasn't sure how long he'd been out, but when he reopened his eyes it was still dark outside, the stars just as clear as they'd been earlier. His head ached badly and lifting his neck up to take in his surroundings took more effort than he anticipated. When he did though, he spotted a group of other people sitting beside him, noticing his movements.

"Oh good, you're back" a bespectacled boy said matter of factly, standing up to walk over as he did so.

"Yeah, it's a good thing too" chided a black-haired boy in a baseball cap beside him, "Jeff was about to kiss you if you didn't".

A blonde girl, who'd been sitting with them smacked the black-haired boy in the back of the head pretty hard, the impact audible. "It's called CPR Ness, grow up". She too stood up with the boys to come over and check on Lucas.

"Call it whatever you want Paula, it's still kissing to me" the boy teased back, chuckling at himself. The boy with glasses knelt next to Lucas, looking him up and down. The glare from the moonlight on his glasses made it impossible to see his eyes underneath, unsettling Lucas a bit.

"Are you good to stand?" he asked, his tone unchanged.

"Uh, yeah" he responded, standing up stiffly. He had a splitting headache, and his elbows were pretty scuffed up, but he was otherwise fine. He rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head, expecting a bit of blood from the pain but feeling none. "How did you guys run into me anyway?" he asked, confused. "I didn't see you guys anywhere, it was like you just appeared out of nowhere". The bespectacled boy, whose name was apparently Jeff, as well as the blonde girl both looked to the taller, red capped boy, whose name he'd gathered was Ness. He scrunched his face up a minute, thinking of what to say.

"We were uh, just running and didn't see each other because it was dark, I guess?" he responded unconvincingly, and the look on his comrades faces told Lucas that they too were unimpressed with his explanation. He flashed a smile at the blonde boy, trying a bit too hard to make eye contact. Lucas nodded his head slowly, knowing he was lying but not sure why.

"Well you guys, thanks for sticking back to check on me, but I'm all good now, and I should probably get back to bed." Lucas said, cracking his neck before trying to make his way back down the path. Ness stepped in his path though, offering his hand out.

"Hey, we never got your name. I'm Ness, the kid who body checked you is Jeff, and this is Paula" he said, gesturing to each friend as he mentioned them. Lucas hesitantly and took his hand, shaking it weakly.

"I'm uh, Lucas" he responded quietly, not making eye contact. Ness's eyes widened a bit at the mention of his name.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, a smile crossing his face. "Ninten was saying that a guy named Lucas was moving here pretty soon, that must be you!". The mention of Ninten piqued Lucas's interest, pulling him out of his shell.

"Yeah, me and my brother just got here a couple days back. You know Ninten?"

"Know?!" Ness almost yelled, his voice far too loud for this time of night. "Ninten's one of my closest buds, we go waaay back". He made a wide, sweeping gesture with his arm for effect. He then proceeded to regale Lucas with the take of how he and Ninten had met years ago, leaving no detail unmentioned. It was clear to Lucas that Ness was enjoying telling this story, but he really did want to head home. He thought about interrupting Ness when he paused to think for a moment, but couldn't form the words. Ness had been going a good ten minutes, and showed no signs of stopping the story anytime soon. Jeff busied himself fidgeting with a couple ball bearings in his coat pocket, while Paula watched Ness in disinterest, having heard the story herself many times.

"Hey Ness?" Paula interrupted, "You think we should let Lucas get back now? You can catch up on all this later." Lucas internally thanked the girl, too shy to interrupt Ness himself. Ness looked a bit sheepish at this, bringing his hand behind his head and grinning.

"Yeah, guess you're right Paula. Catch you later Luke, I'm sure we'll run into each other again, hopefully less literally". He elbowed Jeff lightly, getting a glare from the boy. Lucas nodded, smiling at each of the other teens before resuming walking down towards his house. The three watched Lucas walk, waiting until he was well out of sight before moving from where they were. "Alright guys" Ness said, walking towards the flatter area at the top of the mountain. "Which one of you am I taking home first?". They both shrugged.

"Doesn't matter to me" Jeff offered.

"Alright then, I'll take Paula and be back in just a minute for you Jeff". Jeff gave Ness a thumbs up, sitting down on a boulder to wait.

Meanwhile, Lucas crept up the wood stairs leading up to his door, opening it very slowly. Duster was still sawing logs fast asleep on the couch, offering excellent sound cover as Lucas removed his shoes and sweatshirt. He worked his way quietly back downstairs, and back into his bedroom where Claus had scarcely moved from his position when Lucas had left. Lucas kicked his slippers off and shed his shirt, slipping back into bed and pulling his covers onto him. He doubted he would get to sleep at all now, but his father rose early, and he didn't want to raise suspicion. All the three people he'd met seemed remarkably nice. Well, he wasn't sure about Jeff, but Jeff seemed like a generally impersonal person, rather than unfriendly. Plus, they had to be good people if they were friends with Ninten he thought. How they had run into him sketched him out, but his head hurt too much to really worry about it now. He was sure it wasn't anything nefarious, and that's what mattered in the end he supposed. Ness in particular seemed very friendly, even if his exuberant personality was a bit too much to handle after being knocked at out at two in the morning. He hoped he'd run into him again sometime soon, hopefully at a bit more reasonable of an hour, and like he had said, a bit less literally. All these thoughts were running through the blonde boy's head as he slowly slipped to sleep, the sun starting to rise outside when he finally nodded off for good.

 **Sorry for another shorter chapter, but I felt that having this chapter as its own standalone chapter made more sense than tacking it onto the beginning of another chapter. I won't be able to keep up the upload frequency I'm at right now, just a heads up. As always, thanks so much for reading, and reviews are always appreciated. Ciao!**


	4. Chapter 3

Claus woke up slowly, lying in bed looking at the ceiling for a bit before rolling out of it and grabbing his pajama shirt from under the blankets and pulling it over his head. He looked over at his blonde twin's bed, surprised to see him still sleeping. Lucas usually had Claus beat by an hour at least, and oftentimes two. _He must have been up late reading_ Claus thought to himself, tiptoeing out of their shared room and over to the bathroom across from it. He splashed some water on his face before staring at it in the mirror, checking for rogue blackheads. Him and Lucas looked generally like each other besides their hair colours, though Claus's injuries certainly made him stand out. The obvious was his right arm, or rather lack thereof. What was there ended right about where his elbow would have been, and though Claus often wore shirts with sleeves long enough to obscure the scarred stump arm, he was by no means ashamed or embarrassed by it. At a second glance, you'd notice his shoulders, uneven with his left shoulder noticeably lower than his right. A C-shaped scar spanned from the bridge of his nose to just under his right eye, and the trauma had left his right eye a significantly darker hue of blue than his left, which matched Lucas's sky-blue ones. Despite these lingering scars though Claus was an incredibly confident young man, embracing his notoriety rather than pitying himself. He was rather handsome despite his imperfections, and the girls in Tazmily had certainly taken notice. While Lucas was short, lanky and timid, Claus was a bit taller, rather in shape and boisterous to a fault. Claus traced the scar below his eye with a finger, turning his head left and right to get a full view of his face. He saw nothing of note and took to gelling his hair up for the day. He smiled at himself when he'd finished and made his way upstairs, still in his pyjamas. As he'd expected only Duster was upstairs, fixing himself some eggs on the small gas-lit stove. He turned to face Claus, hearing the creaking floorboards.

"Mornin' Claus, how'd ya sleep?" the man asked, his country accent mingling with a high-pitched, yet gravely voice.

"Like a damn rock Duster" Claus replied, grinning.

"Hey, watch your language kid" Duster warned, his message juxtaposed by the casual tone it was said in. "I don't care, but you know good and well your daddy does". Claus scrunched his nose up in dissatisfaction and shuffled into the kitchen to pour himself some cereal for breakfast. "Say, is Lucas still sleeping?" Duster asked, genuine surprise in his voice.

Claus nodded. "Yeah, least he was when I woke up. Not sure what got into him" he chuckled.

"Any plans today?" Duster asked, plating his eggs and walking over to the small wood coffee table in front of the couch.

"Not really" Claus said shaking his head, "though I'll probably kick around town for a while and meet some people before school starts up. Try not to be at a total disadvantage." Duster nodded his head thoughtfully, pouring copious amounts of hot sauce onto his eggs before tucking in. Claus munched his cereal at the kitchen counter, eating quickly so he could out sooner rather than later. Upon finishing he went back downstairs, finding Lucas still asleep in their shared bedroom. Claus changed into jeans and a striped tee-shirt thats' sleeves covered the end of his right arm; and tied a pair of plain black and white tennis shoes. Before leaving he walked over to Lucas's bed, grabbing his twins' meager sideburns between his thumb and pointer finger and yanking lightly, waking Lucas up almost instantly. "Time to get up kiddo" Claus teased, tousling Lucas's hair playfully.

Lucas swatted his brothers hand away, still bitter about having his hair pulled. "Piss off Claus, what time is it?"

Claus smirked. "It's 9:30 dude, you overslept. You have some crazy late night rendezvous last night or what?"

Lucas reddened a bit, glaring. "No, just couldn't sleep, that's all."

Claus nodded, shaking his head. "Anyways, I'm heading out. Should I wait on you or what?"

"No, you're okay. I'll be a while." Claus replied with a thumbs up, closing their bedroom door on his way out. Lucas rubbed his head when Claus had left, a pronounced bump having emerged since last night.

* * *

Ness and Jeff walked together to the park not far from both their houses, both laden with gear. Jeff held a radar gun in his arms, wearing a short-sleeved button up shirt with khaki shorts. Ness wore similar shorts, though pairing it with a striped blue and yellow tee-shirt and carrying a bat and a bucket of baseballs, with more equipment in the knapsack on his back. The two reached their destination, a short dark-haired boy in jean shorts and a blue baseball shirt waiting for them there with a baseball glove.

"Hey Ness, Jeff!" the boy yelled to them excitedly, waving both arms happily. Jeff and Ness smiled at this, waving back.

"How's it hanging Ninten?" Ness yelled back.

Ninten waited for Ness and Jeff to reach him before answering, high fiving both of them. "Just waiting on you bums. Where have you guys been? I've been waiting like twenty minutes."

Jeff looked at Ness, who smiled sheepishly. "Well, we were trying to fast travel here, but couldn't find a good spot. Too many people out today. Eventually decided fuck it and walked."

Ninten shook his head laughing. "That's why you leave early, I didn't have that issue."

"We had a late night last night, swung by Dalaam to check on Poo, hung out there for a while and then Jeff almost killed some kid when we finally came back."

Jeff slugged Ness in the arm spitefully, eliciting a yelp from the raven-haired boy. "You teleported me into him you muttonhead."

Ninten cocked his head curiously. "Who was it? One of the neighborhood guys?"

Ness shook his head. "Nah, it was that new kid you were talking about, Lucas. Really scrawny dude. Even Jeff, weak as he is Borowiecki'd him pretty good."

"Lucas is here already!? That's awesome! We should go see if he wants to join us!"

An unfamiliar voice responded to Ninten, startling the three boys. "He's not much for sports, it'd be a wasted trip." Claus was leaning up against the chain link backstop, hexagon shapes being pressed into his arms. Ness and Jeff's eyes went wide at the sight of the boy, in all his asymmetry and misshapenness, but Ninten seemed relatively unfazed.

"Oh, you must be Claus! Lucas told me a lot about you."

"Did he now? All good things I hope?" Claus walked around the backstop and over to the congregation, Ness and Jeff still looking at Claus's arm, much to his amusement.

Ninten grinned. "Mostly yeah. He said you play baseball?" Ness and Jeff shot looks at Ninten, Ness gesturing non-discreetly at Claus's right arm, trying to silently chastise Ninten for asking. Ninten looked back at him confused."

"Yeah, pretty much all there was to do back where I'm from. I don't hit too good for obvious reasons, but I can pitch as good as anyone."

At this Ness smirked. "Oh yeah? Well I can hit about as well as anyone, so this should be a pretty good matchup."

Claus puffed his chest at the challenge, a grin stretching across his face. "Sounds like a done deal Stripes."

"You can call me Ness, that's Jeff and you've already met Ninten."

Claus thought for a second and shook his head. "Nah, I like Stripes better. Toss me a ball?"

Ness chuckled and tossed a ball underhand to Claus, who snagged it with a calloused hand. The ginger kicked the dirt at the mound a bit, scraping it to his liking before getting set. Ness's batting stance was odd, his feet rather wide and the bat held far higher than most. Claus watched him take a few practice swings as Claus warmed up throwing to Ninten behind the plate, slowly kicking up his speed. After a dozen or so pitches both Ness and Claus were ready and stared each other down for a moment before Claus delivered. Claus put a fair amount of heat on this ball, catching the outside corner of the zone but Ness crushed it easily, lifting it deep into left field. Between the location of the pitch and Ness's abnormal stance he almost looked like he was golfing. The next few pitches went much the same, Ness putting two of them past the outfield fence.

"You're good Claus, but I guess I'm just better!" Ness yelled teasingly, taking a big practice swing.

Claus narrowed his eyes, his competitive nature starting to get the better of him. He took a moment to focus his mind, concentrating on the task at hand. He spun the ball in his hand, feeling the seams. A bit of PSI crackled from his fingertips, eliciting a smirk from the one-armed boy. When both he and Ness were set once more he delivered another pitch, not changing his delivery in any noticeable way, but using a bit of PSI to propel the ball just a bit faster. Ness took a huge cut at the ball but was embarrassingly late, swinging practically as the ball loudly cracked into Ninten's glove.

"God dammit!" Ninten yelled, throwing his glove off and grabbing his hand. "Where did that come from!?" he shook his hand wildly as he asked, trying to get rid of the stinging in his palm.

"Just threw it into second gear I guess" Claus shrugged.

"That's underselling it a bit" Jeff noted, speaking for the first time in quite a while from the dugout. "Your last fastball was 74 miles per hour, that last one was 91."

Both Ness and Ninten's eyes widened at that figure, but Claus silently cursed to himself. _Went a little overboard it looks like_. Ness dropped the bat and ran over to the mound to high five him, a grin on his face despite just being humiliated.

"That was crazy man, 91 miles per-" As Ness and Claus high fived a crackle of electricity jolted between the two boys fingers, shocking them both, literally and figuratively."

"You've got PSI too?!" they asked at the same time, incredulous.

"Well that explains what you did right there" snickered Ness, feeling a little better about having just whiffed hard.

"Yeah" the redhead replied sheepishly.

"That's awesome dude, Ninten here's got it too, it runs in his family. Crazy right?"

Claus looked at Ninten in surprise. Look's certainly weren't everything (he would know) but he never would have taken Ninten as someone with such extraordinary abilities. He was even shorter than Lucas, though much less wiry in frame. _Speaking of Lucas_ Claus thought to himself, spotting his twin walking down the street that ran by the baseball diamond. "Hey bro!" he yelled, startling a far-off-in-thought Lucas, who waved when he spotted his brother and the other boys. As Lucas walked towards him he noticed that Ness and Jeff from the night previous made up half the party, but the other boy looked like..

"Lucas!" Ninten yelled, waving excitedly.

 _Ah, that's Ninten alright._ Lucas waved back, much less exuberantly. He made his way to the group, standing instinctively next to his brother.

"What's up Luke?" Ness asked, "Long time no see"

Claus was confused. "Huh? How do you know these guys Lucas?" he asked.

"I, er, ran into them yesterday, and got acquainted."

Ness laughed, "Yeah, it was a pretty interesting way to meet someone. I certainly don't recommend trying it, but it wasn't altogether unpleasant, right Luke?"

 _Speak for yourself_ Lucas thought to himself, rubbing the back of his head.

"You trying to play some baseball little bro?" Claus asked, putting a teasing lilt in his voice at _little bro._

Lucas shot him a look, but said nothing to the teasing. "I'm good for right now, I'll sit and watch though."

"Sweet, back to where we were Stripes?"

"Sounds good to me _Clausy_."

Claus frowned at this, narrowing his eyes. "You call me that, I bean you." Ness stuck his tongue out and knocked the dirt off his shoes with his bat before stepping back into the batters box. On the bench Lucas sat absent-mindedly, watching a bird hopping around on an oak branch until the loud CRACK of a bat broke the silence. Ness held the pose for a moment, admiring his handiwork. That ball had been killed, and Ness and Claus both knew it. The two boys resumed, their battles being split somewhat evenly now that Claus was using PSI to gain an edge. The whole time though Lucas was watching Ness. He hadn't noticed it last night, largely on account of it being dark, but Ness was incredibly muscular for their age, and though his clothes and hair were a bit disheveled, he largely looked very clean cut. Lucas had never really noticed a guy this way before, and was a bit confused with himself. Still, he could scarcely break his gaze away from the handsome teen.

Though Claus and Ness were too transfixed with their duel, and Jeff was busy clocking pitch speed and exit velocities, Ninten noticed how Lucas's gaze had barely broken from Ness and was puzzled. _Is he just spacing out, or is he checking Ness out?_ Ninten thought to himself, another Claus fastball ringing into his glove. Ness stepped out of the box for a moment to breath, and the instant he did Lucas's eyes snapped away, quickly wandering back to the three he'd been looking at before. _Oh yeah, he was checking him out_ Ninten smiled to himself. _Do I tell him Ness doesn't swing that way, or let him figure it out?_ Ninten was so lost in his own thoughts he hadn't noticed play resume, and caught a baseball square to the sternum, knocking him over.

"Shit dude! Are you good?" Claus yelled worriedly.

"Yeah" Ninten wheezed, coughing a bit as he regained his breath.

"Were you off in dreamland or something man?" Ness teased, kicking Ninten's shoe lightly."

"Er, something like that." Ninten's gaze returned to Claus and the game, stealing one last look to Lucas, who had resumed his fixation.

 **Finally, a longer chapter. This Chapter and the next were initially going to be combined into one big one, but I decided since the main ideas of both were different, the next is quite kind and I didn't want to have the chapter feel too segmented, I decide to just make it two chapters. Also, this let me upload a bit sooner to keep the upload frequency at least somewhat normal. As always, thanks for reading. Ciao!**

 **PS: adding a note like this one to the authors note isn't ordinarily my style, and it likely won't happen with any regularity. However, I wanted to put this out: I have too much free time, and too few ideas. As much as I'd love to sit down and crank out this entire story in one sitting, my brain won't let me work like that. So, as fun writing practice exercises and also to keep my brain sharp, if anyone of you have requests for relatively simple, T or lower rated Earthbound oneshots, please shoot them to me via PM! Can never go wrong with more Earthbound fanfiction!**


	5. Chapter 4

Claus woke up slowly, lying in bed looking at the ceiling for a bit before rolling out of it and grabbing his pajama shirt from under the blankets and pulling it over his head. He looked over at his blonde twin's bed, surprised to see him still sleeping. Lucas usually had Claus beat by an hour at least, and oftentimes two. _He must have been up late reading_ Claus thought to himself, tiptoeing out of their shared room and over to the bathroom across from it. He splashed some water on his face before staring at it in the mirror, checking for rogue blackheads. Him and Lucas looked generally like each other besides their hair colours, though Claus's injuries certainly made him stand out. The obvious was his right arm, or rather lack thereof. What was there ended right about where his elbow would have been, and though Claus often wore shirts with sleeves long enough to obscure the scarred stump arm, he was by no means ashamed or embarrassed by it. At a second glance, you'd notice his shoulders, uneven with his left shoulder noticeably lower than his right. A C-shaped scar spanned from the bridge of his nose to just under his right eye, and the trauma had left his right eye a significantly darker hue of blue than his left, which matched Lucas's sky-blue ones. Despite these lingering scars though Claus was an incredibly confident young man, embracing his notoriety rather than pitying himself. He was rather handsome despite his imperfections, and the girls in Tazmily had certainly taken notice. While Lucas was short, lanky and timid, Claus was a bit taller, rather in shape and boisterous to a fault. Claus traced the scar below his eye with a finger, turning his head left and right to get a full view of his face. He saw nothing of note and took to gelling his hair up for the day. He smiled at himself when he'd finished and made his way upstairs, still in his pyjamas. As he'd expected only Duster was upstairs, fixing himself some eggs on the small gas-lit stove. He turned to face Claus, hearing the creaking floorboards.

"Mornin' Claus, how'd ya sleep?" the man asked, his country accent mingling with a high-pitched, yet gravely voice.

"Like a damn rock Duster" Claus replied, grinning.

"Hey, watch your language kid" Duster warned, his message juxtaposed by the casual tone it was said in. "I don't care, but you know good and well your daddy does". Claus scrunched his nose up in dissatisfaction and shuffled into the kitchen to pour himself some cereal for breakfast. "Say, is Lucas still sleeping?" Duster asked, genuine surprise in his voice.

Claus nodded. "Yeah, least he was when I woke up. Not sure what got into him" he chuckled.

"Any plans today?" Duster asked, plating his eggs and walking over to the small wood coffee table in front of the couch.

"Not really" Claus said shaking his head, "though I'll probably kick around town for a while and meet some people before school starts up. Try not to be at a total disadvantage." Duster nodded his head thoughtfully, pouring copious amounts of hot sauce onto his eggs before tucking in. Claus munched his cereal at the kitchen counter, eating quickly so he could out sooner rather than later. Upon finishing he went back downstairs, finding Lucas still asleep in their shared bedroom. Claus changed into jeans and a striped tee-shirt thats' sleeves covered the end of his right arm; and tied a pair of plain black and white tennis shoes. Before leaving he walked over to Lucas's bed, grabbing his twins' meager sideburns between his thumb and pointer finger and yanking lightly, waking Lucas up almost instantly. "Time to get up kiddo" Claus teased, tousling Lucas's hair playfully.

Lucas swatted his brothers hand away, still bitter about having his hair pulled. "Piss off Claus, what time is it?"

Claus smirked. "It's 9:30 dude, you overslept. You have some crazy late night rendezvous last night or what?"

Lucas reddened a bit, glaring. "No, just couldn't sleep, that's all."

Claus nodded, shaking his head. "Anyways, I'm heading out. Should I wait on you or what?"

"No, you're okay. I'll be a while." Claus replied with a thumbs up, closing their bedroom door on his way out. Lucas rubbed his head when Claus had left, a pronounced bump having emerged since last night.

* * *

Ness and Jeff walked together to the park not far from both their houses, both laden with gear. Jeff held a radar gun in his arms, wearing a short-sleeved button up shirt with khaki shorts. Ness wore similar shorts, though pairing it with a striped blue and yellow tee-shirt and carrying a bat and a bucket of baseballs, with more equipment in the knapsack on his back. The two reached their destination, a short dark-haired boy in jean shorts and a blue baseball shirt waiting for them there with a baseball glove.

"Hey Ness, Jeff!" the boy yelled to them excitedly, waving both arms happily. Jeff and Ness smiled at this, waving back.

"How's it hanging Ninten?" Ness yelled back.

Ninten waited for Ness and Jeff to reach him before answering, high fiving both of them. "Just waiting on you bums. Where have you guys been? I've been waiting like twenty minutes."

Jeff looked at Ness, who smiled sheepishly. "Well, we were trying to fast travel here, but couldn't find a good spot. Too many people out today. Eventually decided fuck it and walked."

Ninten shook his head laughing. "That's why you leave early, I didn't have that issue."

"We had a late night last night, swung by Dalaam to check on Poo, hung out there for a while and then Jeff almost killed some kid when we finally came back."

Jeff slugged Ness in the arm spitefully, eliciting a yelp from the raven-haired boy. "You teleported me into him you muttonhead."

Ninten cocked his head curiously. "Who was it? One of the neighborhood guys?"

Ness shook his head. "Nah, it was that new kid you were talking about, Lucas. Really scrawny dude. Even Jeff, weak as he is Borowiecki'd him pretty good."

"Lucas is here already!? That's awesome! We should go see if he wants to join us!"

An unfamiliar voice responded to Ninten, startling the three boys. "He's not much for sports, it'd be a wasted trip." Claus was leaning up against the chain link backstop, hexagon shapes being pressed into his arms. Ness and Jeff's eyes went wide at the sight of the boy, in all his asymmetry and misshapenness, but Ninten seemed relatively unfazed.

"Oh, you must be Claus! Lucas told me a lot about you."

"Did he now? All good things I hope?" Claus walked around the backstop and over to the congregation, Ness and Jeff still looking at Claus's arm, much to his amusement.

Ninten grinned. "Mostly yeah. He said you play baseball?" Ness and Jeff shot looks at Ninten, Ness gesturing non-discreetly at Claus's right arm, trying to silently chastise Ninten for asking. Ninten looked back at him confused."

"Yeah, pretty much all there was to do back where I'm from. I don't hit too good for obvious reasons, but I can pitch as good as anyone."

At this Ness smirked. "Oh yeah? Well I can hit about as well as anyone, so this should be a pretty good matchup."

Claus puffed his chest at the challenge, a grin stretching across his face. "Sounds like a done deal Stripes."

"You can call me Ness, that's Jeff and you've already met Ninten."

Claus thought for a second and shook his head. "Nah, I like Stripes better. Toss me a ball?"

Ness chuckled and tossed a ball underhand to Claus, who snagged it with a calloused hand. The ginger kicked the dirt at the mound a bit, scraping it to his liking before getting set. Ness's batting stance was odd, his feet rather wide and the bat held far higher than most. Claus watched him take a few practice swings as Claus warmed up throwing to Ninten behind the plate, slowly kicking up his speed. After a dozen or so pitches both Ness and Claus were ready and stared each other down for a moment before Claus delivered. Claus put a fair amount of heat on this ball, catching the outside corner of the zone but Ness crushed it easily, lifting it deep into left field. Between the location of the pitch and Ness's abnormal stance he almost looked like he was golfing. The next few pitches went much the same, Ness putting two of them past the outfield fence.

"You're good Claus, but I guess I'm just better!" Ness yelled teasingly, taking a big practice swing.

Claus narrowed his eyes, his competitive nature starting to get the better of him. He took a moment to focus his mind, concentrating on the task at hand. He spun the ball in his hand, feeling the seams. A bit of PSI crackled from his fingertips, eliciting a smirk from the one-armed boy. When both he and Ness were set once more he delivered another pitch, not changing his delivery in any noticeable way, but using a bit of PSI to propel the ball just a bit faster. Ness took a huge cut at the ball but was embarrassingly late, swinging practically as the ball loudly cracked into Ninten's glove.

"God dammit!" Ninten yelled, throwing his glove off and grabbing his hand. "Where did that come from!?" he shook his hand wildly as he asked, trying to get rid of the stinging in his palm.

"Just threw it into second gear I guess" Claus shrugged.

"That's underselling it a bit" Jeff noted flatly, speaking for the first time in quite a while from the dugout. "Your last fastball was 74 miles per hour, that one was 91."

Both Ness and Ninten's eyes widened at that figure, but Claus silently cursed to himself. _Went a little overboard it looks like_. Ness dropped the bat and ran over to the mound to high five him, a grin on his face despite just being humiliated.

"That was crazy man, 91 miles per-" As Ness and Claus high fived a crackle of electricity jolted between the two boys fingers, shocking them both, literally and figuratively."

"You've got PSI too?!" they asked at the same time, incredulous.

"Well that explains what you did right there" snickered Ness, feeling a little better about having just whiffed hard.

"Yeah" the redhead replied sheepishly.

"That's awesome dude, Ninten here's got it too, it runs in his family. Crazy right?"

Claus looked at Ninten in surprise. Look's certainly weren't everything (he would know) but he never would have taken Ninten as someone with such extraordinary abilities. He was even shorter than Lucas, though much less wiry in frame. _Speaking of Lucas_ Claus thought to himself, spotting his twin walking down the street that ran by the baseball diamond. "Hey bro!" he yelled, startling a far-off-in-thought Lucas, who waved when he spotted his brother and the other boys. As Lucas walked towards him he noticed that Ness and Jeff from the night previous made up half the party, but the other boy looked like..

"Lucas!" Ninten yelled, waving excitedly.

 _And this must be Ninten._ Lucas waved back, much less exuberantly. He made his way to the group, standing instinctively next to his brother.

"What's up Luke?" Ness asked, "Long time no see"

Claus was confused. "Huh? How do you know these guys Lucas?" he asked.

"I, er, ran into them yesterday, and got acquainted."

Ness laughed, "Yeah, it was a pretty interesting way to meet someone. I certainly don't recommend trying it, but it wasn't altogether unpleasant, right Luke?"

 _Speak for yourself_ Lucas thought to himself, rubbing the back of his head.

"You trying to play some baseball little bro?" Claus asked, putting a teasing lilt in his voice at _little bro._

Lucas shot him a look, but said nothing to the teasing. "I'm good for right now, I'll sit and watch though."

"Sweet, back to where we were Stripes?"

"Sounds good to me _Clausy_."

Claus frowned at this, narrowing his eyes. "You call me that, I bean you." Ness stuck his tongue out and knocked the dirt off his shoes with his bat before stepping back into the batters box. On the bench Lucas sat absent-mindedly, watching a bird hopping around on an oak branch until the loud CRACK of a bat broke the silence. Ness held the pose for a moment, admiring his handiwork. That ball had been killed, and Ness and Claus both knew it. The two boys resumed, their battles being split somewhat evenly now that Claus was using PSI to gain an edge. The whole time though Lucas was watching Ness. He hadn't noticed it last night, largely on account of it being dark, but Ness was incredibly muscular for their age, and though his clothes and hair were a bit disheveled, he largely looked very clean cut. Lucas had never really noticed a guy this way before, and was a bit confused with himself. Still, he could scarcely break his gaze away from the handsome teen.

Though Claus and Ness were too transfixed with their duel, and Jeff was busy clocking pitch speed and exit velocities, Ninten noticed how Lucas's gaze had barely broken from Ness and was puzzled. _Is he just spacing out, or is he checking Ness out?_ Ninten thought to himself, another Claus fastball ringing into his glove. Ness stepped out of the box for a moment to breath, and the instant he did Lucas's eyes snapped away, quickly wandering back to the three he'd been looking at before. _Oh yeah, he was checking him out_ Ninten smiled to himself. _Do I tell him Ness doesn't swing that way, or let him figure it out?_ Ninten was so lost in his own thoughts he hadn't noticed play resume, and caught a baseball square to the sternum, knocking him over.

"Shit dude! Are you good?" Claus yelled worriedly.

"Yeah" Ninten wheezed, coughing a bit as he regained his breath.

"Were you off in dreamland or something man?" Ness teased, kicking Ninten's shoe lightly."

"Er, something like that." Ninten's gaze returned to Claus and the game, stealing one last look to Lucas, who had resumed his fixation.

 **Finally, a longer chapter. This Chapter and the next were initially going to be combined into one big one, but I decided since the main ideas of both were different, and I didn't want to have the chapter feel too segmented, I decide to just make it two chapters. Also, this let me upload a bit sooner to keep the upload frequency at least somewhat normal. As always, thanks for reading. Ciao!**

 **PS: adding a note like this one to the authors note isn't ordinarily my style, and it likely won't happen with any regularity. However, I wanted to put this out: I have too much free time, and too few ideas. As much as I'd love to sit down and crank out this entire story in one sitting, my brain won't let me work like that. So, as fun writing practice exercises and also to keep my brain sharp, if anyone of you have requests for relatively simple, T or lower rated Earthbound oneshots, please shoot them to me via PM! Can never go wrong with more Earthbound fanfiction!**


	6. Chapter 5

The next few days went similarly to the first, spending the majority of the day together kicking around town. Lucas and Claus were shown the rest of what they hadn't seen the first day, though opted to eat sandwiches brought from home rather than burgers most of these days. The boys all got along famously, particularly Claus and Ness, though Lucas often seemed distant and distracted. The ever astute Jeff took note, as did Ness, who worried a bit about the boy. Claus and Ninten though were off in their own world, too busy to really notice. This however did not dampen the boys fun, and when not playing baseball they were swimming at the waterhole north of town, or bumming around on the mountain where Lucas and Ness had met. This particular Thursday they'd decided to spend the day at the water hole, though Lucas had excused himself after a few hours there, citing chores he had to do as a reason. Claus gave him a skeptical look, and Ness a disappointed look, but the boys all bade him goodbye, and Lucas started walking the mile-and-a-half or so trek back to their house. Naturally, his mind wandered to Ness as he walked solitary, the feelings he felt no less confusing than they'd been for the last several days. Ness obviously liked him, but Lucas knew he didn't **like** him, he was just a good friend. Lucas wasn't sure how to feel about that, liking knowing that he had found such good friends so quickly, but the odd pining he felt made it bittersweet that Ness wouldn't be any more than that...

"Hey!" a voice called out, snapping Lucas out of his thoughts. He turned and looked over to see the blonde girl from the other night on the mountain waving to him. _What was her name, Pollyanna?_ Lucas thought, not wanting to offend her. She ran up to him, closing the gap between them. "It's Paula." she said, seemingly reading Lucas's mind. Lucas was a bit taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered.

"Oh, er, hey, what's up? Do you need something?"

Paula smiled, chuckling a bit mentally at Lucas's shyness. "Not really, I was just walking home from work and saw you walking all alone. What are you doing?"

"Uhhh" Lucas stuttered, trying to come up with any excuse but failing.

"Perfect, you want to walk me home then? Get me there alive and there's a Coke in it for you" she teased, elbowing his arm.

The reserved boy was stunned by her forwardness, but agreed.

* * *

Paula led the two, walking just a bit ahead of, though still beside Lucas. "So what's bothering you Lucas?" she asked, getting right to the point.

"Oh nothing" Lucas lied, doing his best to put on a smile.

Paula gave him a disapproving look and cocked her head. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way Lucas, but I'm helping you out one way or another".

Lucas wasn't sure how to even begin responding to that. "Th-the easy way? Hard way? What are you talking about?"

Paula smiled a mischievous smile. "Well, either you tell me or I read your mind and figure it out, which I'm guessing you don't really want me to do."

 _Read my mind, yeah right_ Lucas thought. _Then again, she did know I didn't remember her name.._

"So what's it going to be cowboy?"

Lucas sighed. "Just sorting out how I feel about someone. It really is nothing."

Paula's eyebrows perked up but didn't pry any further, rather resorting to more mundane questions. "So where you lived before here, was it a lot different?"

Lucas nodded fervently. "Tazmily was so small compared to here. Onett has so many people and buildings and cars, Tazmily Village was so much simpler and quieter. Well, it was at least.." Lucas trailed off.

"What happened?"

"This guy named Yokuba came to town, started getting the people to modernize and urbanize, and everyone started changing too. When we left, Tazmily was almost unrecognizable from when Claus and I were kids. People and families we'd known forever were completely different people. It was sad."

The blonde girl nodded somberly, "Do you like living here more so far?"

"Definitely", Lucas nodded. "Even though it's a big place, I just feel more free here you know? And it's been awesome getting to know Ness and Ninten and Jeff and Ness and-"

"You said Ness twice"

 _Dammit Lucas._

And the food is great! So many different places and things to eat here compared to the village". The lack of smoothness in his recovery was not lost on the girl, but she rolled with it.

"Yeah, it's pretty much a wonderland for Ness and Ninten, I swear those guys are bottomless holes."

"My brother too" Lucas nodded, smiling a bit.

"Speaking of your brother," Paula paused and crinkled her nose a bit. "What happened to his arm?"

The small smile on Lucas's face evaporated. "He uh, broke his arm real bad as a little kid. Couldn't heal right so the doc decided he'd be better off without it".

"How'd he break it that had? Doing something stupid no doubt."

* * *

 _If you tell Dad on me I'll put mole crickets in your pillow, so you better not Lucas._

 _Please don't go by yourself! You can't beat up a Drago all by yourself!_

 _I have to. You can't come or everyone will come looking for us, and Dad won't let me._

 _Claus, please don't leave!_

 _Lucas?! Why didn't you stop him?!_

 _W-well, I said I wanted to go too, but he said no because he was going alone..._

 _So you just let him go?! You fool!_

* * *

"Lucas? Lucas? Is everything okay?"

Lucas snapped back to the present, blinking. "Yeah, sorry, just got caught up thinking. Yeah, something stupid" he said, his voice quavering a bit.

Paula looked at him concernedly, and Lucas looked up at her, small teardrops barely forming in the corners of his eyes. He blinked to be rid of them and put on a weak smile, fooling no one. Paula looked at him a bit longer before turning back to the path, a mutual silence hanging between them. After another minute or so Paula turned off of the sidewalk and up a narrow driveway, beckoning Lucas to follow her. "We're here! I'll grab you something from the fridge to pay you back, come on."

The inside of the house was plain, reminding Lucas a lot of his own house. It largely resembled Lucas's both in design and decoration, though rooms were arranged differently.

"You can sit down wherever, I'll be right there!" Paula yelled from the kitchen. Lucas had hoped to stay no longer than he needed to, but did not want to seem rude. He looked around at the plain living room, once again resembling his own. In fact, the couch he was sitting on, he noted, was the exact same. Paula strolled into the living room, an open soda bottle in either hand. She handed one off to Lucas, taking a seat across the small coffee table from him with her own. Immediately Lucas was taken aback by how cold the soda was; it almost hurt to touch. He set it down quickly, trying not to be conspicuous but failing spectacularly. Paula giggled. "Sorry Luke, they weren't in the refrigerator so I had to chill them myself. PSI isn't an exact science though."

Lucas looked at her, confused. "PSI? You have powers like my brother does?"

Paula looked amused at this. "Raggedy Andy's got PSI too? Whaddaya know. Yeah, same idea." Paula produced a large snowflake from her hand, twirling it around her fingers before closing her hand on it.

Lucas looked on in amazement, at the drink and then back to Paula. "Wow! That's way more impressive than anything my brother does! He mostly just makes sparks."

The blonde girl puffed her chest at the compliment, beaming. "Yeah, it's pretty awesome."

Lucas was noticeably more relaxed than he had been, the smile on his face genuine rather than forced. Paula showed off a few more tricks while Lucas waited for his bottle to warm a little, conjuring a small flame at the end of her pointer finger, as well as letting jolts of electricity dance between her splayed fingers.

"Doesn't that hurt at all?' Lucas asked, taking a first cautious sip from his bottle.

"Nope! The electricity tickles a bit, but the effects of the PSI doesn't hurt me at all."

"Wow, that's really handy. Will it still hurt other people though?"

"Oh yeah" Paula said, a mischievous lilt in her voice. "Hurts like a mother too, Ness can tell you that much."

Lucas laughed nervously a bit, the imagery amusing, but the mention of Ness bringing back to light the thoughts that had been wracking his brain prior to running into Paula. Paula looked at Lucas oddly, her head cocked a bit.

"How come you don't know much about PSI if you have it yourself Lucas?" she asked.

It was Lucas's turn to be confused now. "I don't have PSI, my brother does though."

Paula shook her head. "Ah, so you just haven't figured it out yet then."

"Huh?"

"Well, if you didn't have at least some PSI proficiency I wouldn't be able to sense your thoughts. The only people I know I'm able to do it with are Ness, Ninten and Poo. And then you and your brother of course.

Lucas's stomach dropped, beads of sweat forming on his brow quickly. _Shit, she can read minds. Clear mind, clear mind, clear mind..._

"Little late there."

Lucas tried to form a response but couldn't, stammering a bit while still trying in vain to rid his mind of any thoughts he didn't want Paula perusing.

Paula just looked on amused, annoying Lucas a bit. "I'd prefer if you didn't go around just reading my mind without me knowing, thanks" he snapped, a faint trace of a pout forming on his face.

"If I could turn it off I would Lucas, your brain is just yelling at me. Once you've got the whole PSI thing down you can sort of block me out with your PSI, but since you obviously haven't, all those stressful thoughts you've been wrestling with have just been floating out in the open so to speak."

"Oh, that, makes some sense I guess" Lucas admitted. "Sorry for snapping."

"It's fine" Paula replied graciously. "I can understand how intrusive that would feel."

"So you've seen-"

Paula nodded.

"Everything? About Ness, and about my brother and-"

Paula nodded again, looking a bit more somber at the mention of Lucas's flashback.

Lucas just nodded in response, trying not to let all the grief of those few days so many years ago pervade his brain but to no avail. Paula visibly recoiled, a lump forming in her throat.

 _Flint! What are you doing?! Claus and Lucas are watching!_

Lucas's eyes were screwed shut and his fists balled, trying to force the events from his mind. Tears started to well up in the corner of his eyes, though he was too distraught to wipe them away. Paula too was visibly emotional, trying to keep a stiff upper lip for Lucas unsuccessfully, tears flowing freely and silently down her cheeks.

"Lucas... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine." Lucas interrupted, his voice cracking a bit. "Sorry to kill the mood."

Paula felt guilty, and the tears just came faster, her voice breaking a bit now too. "No don't feel.. It's..." words failed her. "I'm just sorry for what happened to you. I can't imagine."

"There's nothing I could have done to save her. But Claus? That was my fault. I should never have let him-" Lucas broke down, silent tears now audible as he choked up, his chest heaving. He put his head in his hands, trying to cover up his shame. To his surprise, he felt Paula's hand on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

"Please don't blame yourself Lucas. That's not going to get you anywhere."

Lucas choked out a few more sobs before clearing his throat to look up Paula, whose own eyes were equally red and puffy. "I know, but I shouldn't have-"

"No buts!" Paula said with surprising conviction, startling Lucas. "You can't linger on that. You just can't. Your brother doesn't blame you, does he?"

Lucas just shook his head, swallowing the lump still in his throat.

"Then why should you?"

The blonde boy just nodded, a faint smile crossing his lips. "Thanks" he eked out weakly.

"Besides," she segued, "How can you be your best you for Ness if you keep beating yourself up like that?"

Lucas went red, not sure how to respond. Paula smiled at this, wiping her eyes of a few last straggling tears.

"He's clearly taken a liking to you, he's raved about you to me Jeff and Poo."

"Really?" Lucas inquired, his eyes lighting up.

"Oh yeah! First thing he said to me the night we KO'd you was what a nice guy you seemed to be."

This brought a smile to his face, but cynicism took it over quickly. "Maybe, but I don't think he likes me in **that** way."

"Oh come on boy, are you kidding me? You're as clueless as Ness is."

"Huh?"

"He totally does dude. He's as starstruck as you are"

Lucas waved a hand in dismissal, shaking his head. "I just don't think he's **that** kind of guy, you know?"

Paula looked at Lucas smugly. "You think you know him better than the girl who's known him for ten years and can literally read minds?"

Lucas tried to form a response but was cut off.

"He's gay Luke. You don't need to worry about that."

Lucas looked at her skeptically, garnering a glare in response.

"I just really don't-"

"Look, you want to date him or not?"

"Well yeah, but-"

"And you trust me, right?"

"Yeah.."

"Then it's settled" Paula said with finality, clapping her hands together.

"But how would I even ask him? It'd just be so weird since we're like, friends and guys and stuff."

"Have you ever asked anyone else out before?"

Lucas looked sheepish. He had been the askee rather than the asker in both of his previous relationships back in Tazmily. Paula took his non-response as a no.

"Looks like this is going to be a new experience for you then, unless Hell freezes over and Ness beats you to the punch."

"Can't you just pull some strings for me? Get this whole thing rolling since you know both of us?"

Paula shook her head. "You both need this, and it would kind of defeat the purpose of this entire self-growth thing if I just did it for you. I'm here if either of you guys want help or advice, but you're doing this yourself."

Lucas nodded, disappointed but understanding what she was getting at.

Paula patted his shoulder. "Don't stress it." She looked at the clock, her eyes widening. The two had been here almost forty-five minutes. "You should probably get rolling pretty soon, my Dad is going to be home son and he's a bit, er, protective."

"Okay." Lucas responded, standing up off the couch, stretching his stiff legs out for a moment. "Hey Paula?"

"What's up?"

Lucas smiled. "Thank you."

Paula smiled back, standing up to give Lucas a hug. "Any time Lucas." She grabbed the door for him and watched him make his way down the street towards his own abode, shaking her head smiling. _He and Ness are going to be interesting._

 **This chapter is definitely my personal favourite so far. The last few have admittedly felt like filler to build up to actual plot advancement, and this chapter felt like the first one that really moves the story forward. I also just really enjoyed creating social interactions between Paula and Lucas, two characters I don't see interact often in fics, and who's personality differences (at least within this story) create a really interesting dynamic. I almost debated whether I should figure out a different way to tell this chapter and save the conversation idea for it's own oneshot or short fic, but in the end I decided to keep this in because of how well I feel it turned out overall. As always, your continued readership is sincerely appreciated, and I hope you're all enjoying the ride so far. Reviews snd critiques always very appreciated as well. Ciao!**


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